Common Ground
by RiikiTikiTavi1
Summary: Gaara doesn't need Tenten. He just wants her. [AU, WiP]
1. Prologue

**Note:** I am behind on my manga reading and only recently become aware that Gaara has become Kazekage and that it normally takes three days to travel from Konoha to Sand. So for the sake of the fic let's just pretend those two little facts don't exist, shall we?

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As soon as she saw him, Tenten realized her surprise was misplaced. He had, after all, been in her bedroom before. Still, it was broad daylight, and although he was no doubt experienced at skulking in the shadows, there was always the possibility of someone seeing him enter her apartment. She couldn't imagine what her old team mates would make of such a sight. Or Gai-sensei.

She closed the door behind her sharply. Briefly she debated locking it, but she felt vulnerable and opted to leave a quick escape route. Not that he had offered her any violence before, but the fact that he had a demon sealed within him and how he had almost killed Lee once put Tenten on her guard. She still did not trust him.

He was sprawled carelessly on her bed and did not turn his head at her entrance. If he could be casual, then so could she. Tenten set her hands against her hips and leaned her shoulders against the door. "Gaara," she prompted.

"Tenten," he drawled.

"What do you want?" No use beating around the bush.

"What a curious question," he murmured. He unfolded from the bed with the sinuous grace that marked him as a shinobi. Gaara of the Desert was not a large man, but he was taller than her, and he was imposing, and suddenly Tenten's room was a great deal smaller than it had been before.

"My lover vanishes weeks without a word, without a **trace**, then one day I come to speak to the Hokage, and there she is, standing behind two idiotic green men. And what does she have to say to me? **Nothing**. Not a single word. So ... what do **you **think I could **possibly **want?"

Tenten narrowed her eyes and stood her ground. "First of all, 'lover' is putting it a bit strong–"

"Oh, I beg your pardon. Do you prefer 'fuck toy'?"

She checked, but just for the second it took her to realize that she had never, once, heard him swear except when he was in bed, and usually then he really didn't know what he was saying. "–and, **second**;" she continued through her teeth, "it wasn't as if I had much of a choice. I was sent on a month long mission to Rain Country and I only just got back yesterday." Never in her wildest thoughts would she ever expect Gaara to be so angry.

And he was very, very angry. Tenten had known him often enough during recent months to know he was not someone who lost his cool easily. There were spots of color high on his pale face, and his bright eyes were sparking with temper. She slid her hand down her hips towards her kunai holster.

He saw, of course. In such a small space, it was hard to be subtle with her movements. There was a strange twist of emotion across his usually-expressionless face, then Gaara turned his back to her, walking over to a corner where his sand gourd stood and began to strap it on his back with practice ease.

She drummed the fingers of her right hand against the cloth encasing her kunai before deciding against drawing her weapon. He watched her from the edges of his eyes, head turned just enough for him to glance back over his shoulder. The silence was stifling. She was still puzzled over this odd visit of his, and not sure what she should say to him.

Gaara continued to eye her over his shoulder. "I'd love to make my dramatic exit here, Tenten, but you're blocking the door."

Her gaze wary, Tenten stepped away from the door. It put her closer to Gaara, too close, really, for although she had not thought of him at all during her time away, it didn't mean she had forgotten. Here, in this room with him close enough for her to breathe in his scent, it was all too easy to remember.

Even though she expected it and was braced for it, Gaara made no attempt to touch her on his way out. He simply nodded in her general direction and walked through the door with that peculiar slow stride of his. He didn't even slam the door behind him. It was all very ... odd.

As odd as the memories now flooding her mind, refusing this time to be banished to the recesses of her mind.


	2. Chapter 1

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Looking back, Tenten realized 'it' had begun after Gaara joined her team while on a joint mission between Sunagakure and Konohagakure. She, along with Kiba and Sakura, were sent to dispose of some bandits that were currently terrorizing merchants between the borders of the Fire and Wind Countries.

Struggling through the sand was time-consuming, especially with most of their party unused to traveling through Wind Country. When Kiba led them into one sand drift too many, Gaara had finally snapped that they all needed to let someone familiar with the terrain take over. Wasn't that why they required his presence?

"Your Suna council insisted you had to come with us as part of the peace treaty," said Kiba, not with any accusation in his voice but not very kindly either. "That's why you're here."

Snorting, Gaara crossed his arms. "I suppose it's up to us to scout ahead, since _they_ have no idea how to move in sand," he said scornfully.

Tenten actually looked over her shoulder to see who he could possibly be talking to before realizing his shadowed gaze was levelled in her direction. "Me?" She couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice, or the beginning of suspicion, although she had nothing in particular to be suspicious about. Where Gaara was concerned, it was just general good sense to be suspicious. "You're joking."

"You have travelled in my country before, have you not?" It was true- she had. With Neji and Lee. "You must have some familiarity with sand. Anyone else would end up in a sand dune." He glared at the hill of sand currently blocking their path. "**Another **one."

It was a compliment of sorts, albeit the single most backhanded one she had ever received. Tenten glanced toward the others. Kiba gave a careless shrug. Sighing, Sakura glanced up at the darkening sky. "Go ahead and scout out possible routes for tomorrow. We'll set up camp here."

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They trudged along for several minutes in relative silence. At a three-way fork in the path Tenten started to take the northern one knowing that the caverns that were their eventual goal lay in that direction, but Gaara gave a curt shake of his head as he headed for the westernmost branch. "This time of year it gets blocked about 500 meters up," he said.

"It's still the most direct route–"

"Being a slave to the compass is what keeps bringing us to impasse after impasse. Do you people want my help or not?"

_Not,_ she thought, but Tenten opted against saying that out loud. Instead, "Slow down," she snapped. The sand seemed to be rising higher and she panted a little at the effort to keep up with Gaara, who did not seem to be struggling at all.

"…The sand will thin out in a dozen meters or so."

Tenten couldn't decide if she was impressed or irritated when, sure enough, following a northerly bend, the thick blanket of sand covering the path tapered to no more than a few inches. "This is our best bet for tomorrow, then," she commented as she stopped beside him.

She was ignored. Out of nowhere, Gaara reached out, snagged the shoulder of her blouse, and before she could so much as grunt in surprise, had hauled her against him. Off-balance, she clutched at his shoulders in an instinctual effort to maintain her footing, and therefore had no way of fending him off when he dipped his head to press his mouth against hers.

At least, that was her excuse for the first few seconds. Her excuse for the next few was that the repeated flicks of his tongue against the closed line of her mouth distracted her and she was rather curious about where the hand he was sliding down her back was going to end up. Then, since the temperature had been dropping since sunset, she decided that while her chakra generated enough heat to take the edge off the cold, she was still far from warm and he was very, very warm indeed. By the time his hand splayed against the small of her back to gently pull her into him and he gave up the tongue-flicking in favor of suckling on her lower lip, her thought processes had shut down entirely.

Releasing the death-grip on his shoulders, her fingers slid up into the soft hair that halo'd his head. Gaara no longer needed to encourage her to press against him. He rewarded her with soft strokes up and down her back, and when he finally released her mouth she was gasping. She stared wide-eyed at the sky as he bent her across his arm and bit small kisses along her jaw and throat. His hair was brushing against her face, tickling her nose and giving her the urge to sneeze. It snapped her out of her abstracted state, although since she had her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders as her fingers twisted and tangled through his hair, she didn't think she could act very outraged. Carefully she loosened her grasp, and he promptly did the same, allowing her to step back slightly although his hands rested casually on her waist.

"What was that?" Tenten tried to demand, but since the words were tinged with genuine bemusement they lacked the force she meant to put into them.

His cool bright eyes were brighter than usual, and perhaps not so 'cool' at the moment. It made Tenten frown unconsciously. He was definitely acting different from when she'd last seen him a few years ago, during her first Chuunin exams. "Very nice, I would say," he murmured. His head tilted to the side. "Are you a virgin?"

For a moment she gaped at him. "What the hell business is it of yours?!"

"None," Gaara answered immediately, "except that you kiss like a virgin." He raised a hand from her waist to brush a thumb gently across her mouth before letting the tips of his fingers trailed down her throat, to rest lightly just over her chest.

Tenten arched her brows, feeling some of her normal equanimity returning to her and took note at where he was gazing. "They're called, 'breasts'. I suppose that's what comes of being in a male-dominant ninja village. No idea of what the female anatomy entails."

Blinking slowly, Gaara traced the curves of her collarbone, forcing Tenten to repress shivers that had nothing to do with the cold. "We both have gaps in our education," he said agreeably. Folding his fingers around her neck, he stroked under her jaw with his thumb to bring her head up to feather a kiss across her mouth.

_No wonder he's getting the wrong idea, _thought Tenten. _Somehow my hands ended up on his shoulders again..._ She shifted out of his grasp, and the hands resting on her body dropped as if they had never been touching her.

They stood staring at one another for awhile. Tenten was struck by how young Gaara appeared at the moment and she only now just realized he was probably no older than she was.

"Why?" She asked him, reflecting on the absurdity of the last few minutes.

"Because I wanted to." Was his simple reply which only made her frown deepen. No matter what Lee had told her about how lonely and misunderstood he thought Gaara was, Tenten couldn't afford not to be wary of him. She'd watched his battle against Sasuke at the Chuunin exams to know how unstable and plain scary he could be. Then again, it _has_ been about four yeas now. She wasn't going to deny that he seemed a lot different from then. Still…

Gaara made a slight move towards her and Tenten automatically darted back without thinking. She half-thought he'd be angry but all he did was continue to regard her calmly.

"Just as well. I prefer a bed to a sand dune."

"Don't assume too much." Tenten fought down a blush and slanted a look towards the sky, in order to look at anything but him. She inclined her head in the direction they had come from. "We should get moving soon." She said rather stiffly and tensed up when she could still feel his steady gaze on her.

But he turned away from her eventually and Tenten felt as if she could finally breathe normally again. Even though the darkness overtook them long before they returned to Sakura and Kiba's position, Gaara led her unerringly through the desert, and not another word passed his lips until they were in the company of the others.

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I would like to take this time to apologize for my extremely slow update. I _promise_ it won't happen again. Thank you for the lovely reviews! 


	3. Chapter 2

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Scowling, Tenten pushed another meaty hand off her shoulder, not bothering to follow it with the "glare o' death" this time. After an hour of hanging out in a pub with the lowest of the local lowlifes, she had developed a certain level of tolerance for their crude behavior. Rather like swallowing arsenic in low doses, she supposed, so that any exposure to a large dose wouldn't kill you, just leave behind a nagging headache.

"Hey, enough of that," growled Kiba at whoever had accosted her this time. "You're putting me off my food."

"My hero," muttered Tenten.

Kiba shrugged and tipped back his mug, drinking lustily. Since completing their mission with the bandits, Kiba had suggested they go "celebrate" in the local pub of the town they were resting in. Sakura had declined and headed straight for the inn while Gaara seemed to vanish completely. Feeling bored, Tenten had followed Kiba into the rowdy bar and was quickly regretting her decision. Grimacing, she spun on the barstool, leaning her elbows back on the bar. The view hadn't changed much in the last half hour. There was a slightly different contingent of barmaids. Having finished with one set of "customers," they were ready for the next batch. Kiba was on her right and situated in such a way that he could keep an eye on her. If she required help, which was unlikely, all that casualness would slough off as hapless patrons discovered a very deadly ninja on the premises.

On the other side of her lay a dozing Akamaru. Tenten wondered at first how the giant dog could sleep in such a noisy atmosphere but was grateful nonetheless, for his immense size. Apart from the occasional half-hearted proposition, the dog's mere presence was enough to keep her from being manhandled. Tenten idly wondered what would happen if she took any of these middle-aged letches up on their various offers. _Probably massive coronaries all over the pub, _she snickered to herself. Although his gaze didn't leave his food, Kiba raised one eyebrow in a questioning manner. Yes, he **was** keeping an eye on her. Tenten's amusement filtered away, leaving her feeling cross. Hopping off the barstool, she prepared to march away. "I'm going upstairs," she informed him.

"Nothing's upstairs," he responded.

"Precisely," she retorted.

Kiba briefly lifted his gaze from his food to nod carelessly at her. "Whatever."

Turning her back on him, she headed up the stairs to the pub's dining area.

Normally softly lit with romantic candles, and usually housing a traveling vendor or two, tonight the dining room was uninhabited and dark except for the soft moon glow that bled through the half-covered windows. Mercifully the din below muted as soon as she left the staircase. Tenten looked at the windows, suppressing a sigh.

There was a slight noise behind her. Unalarmed, Tenten turned her head. The scrape of a chair indicated she was not alone. Evidently someone else was feeling introspective tonight. "I'm sorry," she started, "I didn't mean to intrude," she continued as she turned towards the noise.

And stopped.

Whoever was unfolding from the chair across the room was definitely male. The shadows hid the features completely, giving the newcomer an illusion of facelessness that was disconcerting. Tenten felt the first frisson of fear skate across her skin, leaving inexplicable goosebumps in its wake. _Just the situation, _she told herself, _no one here could possibly hurt me. _Yet there was an aura of menace about the figure that made it hard to hold her ground rather than dart for the safety of the stairwell.

Especially when the figure moved swiftly towards her without making one sound. It stopped just inches away, and the moonlight fell in strips across an austere, pale face. Tenten felt her eyes widen. "Gaara," she said without heat, genuinely surprised. "What on earth are you hiding up here for?"

"If you've been downstairs, you must know why I'm here," retorted Gaara, arms folded and looking threatening as ever. Tenten broke the unnerving eye contact she was having with him and realized she was rapidly growing more nervous for every minute she was up here alone with him. Gaara had shown no advances towards her after that unexpected kiss he'd sprung on her several days ago and for awhile, Tenten was starting to believe it'd never happen.

"Yeah, um, I'll just leave now--" She mumbled and made to brush past him, but he seized her by an arm. Halting, she found herself glaring at him. There was a pause and then she began to pull away a bit, a hint to let go of her. The grip around her arm slackened, but Gaara didn't remove his hand. Instead, he slid his fingers up her arm to the top of her bare shoulder, brushing them lightly back and forth as he stared into her face, a slightly quizzical expression across his. Tenten tried not to squirm. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Testing a theory," he murmured. The hand on her shoulder moved to her neck then to the back of her head, fingers spreading to hold her steady. Tenten watched, unblinking, as his lids half-closed and he lowered his head to her, resting his mouth lightly against hers. He wasn't touching her anywhere else. Tenten tried to decide if it qualified as a "grope" when he hadn't made any move towards her breasts yet. He hadn't even **looked** at her breasts yet, as far as she could tell, which was at odds with how he'd been ogling them without restraint just a few days ago. It was as if she didn't exist from the neck down, and since the opposite was usually the case, she wasn't sure how to react.

_Like you react to any other moron coming on to you,_ the logical part of her mind prodded her, and Tenten snapped out of her strange abstraction.

She made no effort to pull away. Without warning, he started to undo her hair from their customary buns while still kissing her, until it fell down in waves past her shoulders. Her mouth moved against his when she spoke. "If you're quite finished with your little experiment," She said coolly as he pulled his head back and looked her in the eyes again, the fingers in her hair beginning to twine and shift. "I believe the waitresses have half-hour specials on tonight, so **they** should be able to handle any **other** problems you're experiencing."

Gaara quirked his lips into a sardonic little smirk. Shivering, Tenten wondered why she hadn't made a run for it already. "I thank you for the information, but I'll need rather more than half an hour." The fingers were widening their caresses, kneading her scalp as his thumb stroked the back of her neck, and he **still** wasn't touching her anywhere else or looking below her neck. What was wrong with him?

_What's wrong with **you**? _demanded the logical part of her mind. _The staircase is right there. If he tries to stop you, just yell and Kiba will come running. Never mind that Gaara can beat you all silly without breaking a sweat._

The roughness of his hand pressed lazily against the nape of her neck as he stared steadily down into her eyes. _Fuck off, _Tenten mentally snarled, and the logical part of her mind shrugged and shut down for the night. She tilted her head, glancing at him sideways, feeling his hand shift to accommodate her. He was making no attempt to constrict her movements. She really could leave. "What do you want?" She demanded instead.

The fingers in her hair stilled. Slowly Gaara trailed his hand down her neck, down her back, to the small of her waist, where it stopped; the light touch along her spine woke up nerve endings she didn't know existed. The smirk widened. "Right this moment? I want to kiss you. Properly. May I?"

Ooooh, clever. Make it **her** choice. Tenten scowled for some reason. "Why would you want to? If I remember correctly, you said I 'kiss like a virgin'."

"I didn't say it was a _bad_ thing," He replied. The fingers on her back spread, the thumb doing the same stroking motion it had done to her neck. She sucked in an inelegant breath. Did he **know** what that did to her? "You have to say 'yes,' Tenten."

She was curious and the dark smothered her common sense. "One kiss," Tenten agreed in a sharp tone, making it sound like she was indulging a bratty little boy so that he would leave her alone.

Gaara's other hand came up, the roughness sliding along her jaw and catching slightly on her smooth skin as he positioned her head where he wanted it and continued with the distracting small strokes against her back. He made no attempt to pull her against him, which was surprise number one; he was still keeping contact to a minimum. Surprise number two was that the kiss started out very different from the one in the desert, lips covering hers, no pressure, no demand at all. She heard him inhale very slowly through his nose. His mouth parted over hers, his tongue rubbed against her lower lip, then his mouth shifted and he softly suckled the flesh he had just stroked.

Suddenly, Tenten really wanted to do something with her hands.

She wasn't sure what. Pushing him away was a consideration. As lightly as he was holding her, one good shove would do it. Slapping him would be more difficult, partially because he had permission so it wouldn't be fair, and partially because, given the position their heads were in relative to each other, it would be an awkward maneuver to attempt. Really, she just felt odd standing there with her arms dangling uselessly by her sides while his mouth slid over hers and his fingers caressed her jaw and his thumb moved in rough circles over the small of her back. Plus she knew that her knees were likely to give out soon. She wasn't sure how she knew since they never had given any hint of collapse when she'd been in a clinch with any other boys her age. Already, though, this unlikely encounter eclipsed anything she had experienced before.

Flailing blindly behind herself, Tenten felt the hard edge of one of the dining tables bite into her palm. She griped, pulled, and perched against the edge, breathing hard, legs spread inelegantly in an attempt to maintain balance and not end up on the floor.

Gaara gave a small, surprised grunt when her mouth vanished, but his hands were still on her and he followed, stumbling slightly. It was a little strange and amusing to watch Gaara off guard. She heard a slapping sound as his hands came down flat on either side of her. More importantly, his torso was pressing against her stomach, his face tucked under her chin. He had to be getting an eyeful of her "assets" in that position. Tenten leaned against the table, stunned that she had a guy between her thighs, more stunned when she considered who the guy was. Gaara shifted over her, resting his weight on one hand as the other went against her waist and began to trace up her side. He reached her breast -- _here it comes, the grope_ -- but continued without pause or pressure until fingers closed over her shoulder. He turned his head and nuzzled into the base of her throat, teeth nipping oh-so-gently.

Her elbows went the way of her knees, and Tenten found herself staring wide-eyed at the darkened ceiling, flat on her back as the last person in the world she ever expected to willingly embrace pressed against her and moaned into her skin. She wanted to rub her thighs together, but he was in the way so she hooked one leg around his hip and heard the breath hiss from his lungs. Her hands finally found purchase in his hair, clenching near the base of his skull without any of the finesse he used with her. When he bit small kisses in scattered patches across her neck and shoulders she writhed, reduced to a mass of nerve endings and wordless need.

She felt the slight tensing under her hands as he turned his head suddenly and grabbed tighter, afraid he was going to stop. "Shh," he whispered, one finger going to her mouth and then lingering to trace it. He shook his head as if clearing it before pulling her to her feet. Tugging her deeper into the room, he released her to open one of the doors that led to the wrap-around balcony. Tenten hesitated in the doorway, not sure of his purpose, and felt the cool night air like an unwelcoming smack of reason. He turned, bracing a hip against the railing as he folded his arms over his chest and regarded her steadily in his trademark pose.

"Hey," came a voice from the staircase, nearly frightening her out of her wits, "you all right, Tenten?"

"Kiba!" His name came out close to a yelp. Tenten hadn't heard him at all. Pressing a hand over her chest, she glared in his general direction. "Scare someone half to death, why don't you?"

"Sorry," he said, not sounding it at all. "You've been up here a long time, ya know."

"I'm enjoying the quiet, so leave me alone," Tenten snapped.

"Well _excuse_ me for worrying."

"Kiba, wait…" Digging into her pocket, she brought out a cloth purse. "Here." She tossed it to the faint light coming from the stairwell, sure the Inuzuka would catch it. A hand came over the railing and snatched the purse with a small jingling of coin.

"What's this for? I've got my own, it's not like the Hokage deprives us or anything."

"That's a present from me, and you're to spend it on the best slop they have in this place. Nothing personal, but I need some time away from you lot tonight. It's a girl thing."

Kiba grunted, not interested in pursuing any 'girl thing.' "Thanks."

She listened to him stomp back down the stairs. It was quite telling that she hadn't heard him on the way up before.

"You could always go and watch him imbibe your 'present," said Gaara. "I'm sure it will have high entertainment value."

He was still giving her an out, this time not distracting her by letting his hands do their little magic tricks on her skin. Tenten regarded him warily, aware that the darkness hid any chance she had at reading expressions or interpreting emotions. She couldn't understand him at all, and she still wanted him, the guy who had nearly killed Lee. It made no sense. _Well, _she decided, firming up her courage before it fled completely, _at least I won't die a virgin. _Everyone knew that a career as a ninja was no laughing matter-- Tenten had always known she would probably die young. For that reason, it was common for shinobi her age to live life to its fullest, and she intended to do just that.

"I was expecting you to be an even higher entertainment value," She retorted. "Am I wrong?"

"You really shouldn't trust me, you know." He murmured, amused.

"Oh, I don't," Tenten assured him.

"No? Good." Gaara opened his arms to her. "Come here." He made no move towards her; it was her choice, all the wayWith a fatalistic weariness, Tenten went to him, putting her arms around his waist as she leaned her head against the coarse cloth at his chest. His heartbeat was faster than normal, faster than hers at any rate. Pleased that she had such an effect on him, she wiggled a bit as if getting comfortable. His arms came around her, hands stroking down her back to press her into him.

Then Gaara took a step backwards, and they toppled over the balcony's low wall together.

Tenten didn't have time for surprise. She felt the rush of wind, thought _Damn it, I **am**_ _going to die a virgin after all, _and clenched her eyes closed. Then suddenly instead of an inglorious "splat", she was laying on top of sand that was hovering several feet above the ground.

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